Opposites Attract
by vanillageex
Summary: Kibum is one of the popular boys in school, and an amazing dancer. Jonghyun is the loner who wears lifts in his shoes and spends his free time writing in his notebook. Pairing them up for a dance performance was the worst mistake in human history, or at least that's what Kibum believes. M for language- NO SMUT. SHINee / Jongkey c:
1. Chapter 1

"You two are working together."

Jonghyun remains stoic while Kibum bursts into a characteristic diva meltdown. "_What_? Why? He can't even move his feet, and I'm the best dancer here! You can't pair me up with him!" he cries, stamping his foot down and crossing his arms, not unlike a tantrum-throwing child.

"That's exactly why," replies Jaewon. He presses the eject button to remove his CD from the music player and gives Kibum an exasperated look. "Please don't make this difficult, Kibum. You're going to tutor him and I'm expecting some good training. I want you two to at least make the finals, okay? I trust you with this."

Kibum pouts immaturely but doesn't protest. He avoids any eye contact with the shorter boy next to him and stays that way until Jaewon nods solemnly at them and turns to leaves the studio. "Maybe you two will find sides to each other you haven't seen before," he offers before turning the doorknob. Kibum resists marching up to the man and just punching him square in the face.

"Well," Jonghyun says when he leaves, "When do you want to start working on the project?"

"Whenever," replies Kibum coldly, simultaneously trying to think of the different ways he could bum out of this. He reaches no conclusion, as every single one of them ends with him having to quit or the other boy quitting, which means he'll end up quitting too, and he doesn't want that to happen. So unless Jaewon has some miraculous change of heart, he's stuck with Shortie.

"Are lunchtimes okay with you? I mean, the last thing I want is to be wasting my time in the library, but it's either that or after-school."

If Kibum worked back after school, he'd have to sacrifice hours of his essential hangout time with Kris and his gang. Since his father was constantly working and his mother was just busy, he would have to catch a public bus or something, and in the worst case, he would have to go home with Jonghyun, and that was practically social suicide (because someone _always _saw the things you hoped they don't).

"I prefer lunchtimes too."

"Okay, how about tomorrow? The sooner I can get this done, the sooner I can go back into hiding in my cave with the other trolls and dwarves."

For a split second, Kibum believes him. It's a testament to the persuasive power of classroom gossip. Then he allows a smile. But at the same time, he worries about what people, especially Kris, will think if they see him conversing or even merely exchanging looks with Jonghyun. It's got nothing to do with how nice or bitchy or stubborn he is or wants to be. What matters is where he stands socially.

As Jonghyun waves and saunters out of the studio with his backpack dangling from his shoulder, Kibum fumingly kicks his own bag. Everything would have been easier if Jonghyun had the personality of his cooking spatula. He could have worked with him, made up his solo and taught him his, performed it without having to get personal and friendly and avoided anyone even thinking he was enjoying working with the boy. But he had gone and stuffed it all up by making him smile.


	2. Chapter 2

The Seoul High School's cafeteria is pretty much just like any other school's. The furniture is as uncomfortable as humanly possible—greasy tables and creaky, unstable plastic chairs that are designed to make the human body seem utterly stupid and absolutely awkward. The stuff they serve is a step above orphan gruel – Kibum doesn't have the heart to call it food, no, he respects it far too much to call it such an undeserving name – and the cutlery looks like it's been held under the water for a few seconds rather than actually getting washed with normal detergent.

But that isn't the worst of it. When it comes to grouping people, Seoul High School is the worst. There are multiple groups in the cafeteria that consist of:

-The Rebels: the badasses who couldn't care less and always have some kind of piercing or tattoo hidden or openly showing on their body.

-The Nerds & Geeks: self-explanatory, obviously—the ones who would probably know whether Pluto is a planet or not, where exactly it is, the life-forms on its surface and how to make the spaceship to get there.

-The Teachers' Pets: a level under the Nerds in intelligence rankings, who always have front row seats and all four pen colours and probably a polished apple upon their desk if this weren't the 21st century.

-The Bad Barbies: the chilli-flavoured Barbies, usually with heavy eye makeup and funky jewellery who use crude language and backbite to no end.

-The Sport-Fanatics: built, muscular, know how to kick a ball and make sure everyone knows that they can. If this were an American cafeteria, they'd be the "Almighty Jocks", but this is Korea, so they're reduced to "Sport-Fanatics".

-The Loners: miscellaneous people who don't really fit into anything and therefore reside to unknown, forgotten cracks of the school to eat their lunch or spend their free time. Kim Jonghyun, that damn loser, is one of these people.

-The Gigglers: all-girl table, unless you're openly gay and not afraid to show it. They know what their "k-pop oppas" do before they do it, how long they spend brushing their teeth, how many times they're dyed their hair and exactly which shades of colours they dyed it. If you're lucky you can catch a couple of sasaeng fans in there, if they're not ditching school to stalk Super Junior or something.

-The Cheerleaders: number two on the popularity ladder and would probably end up on the Gigglers' table if they couldn't cheer. Only welcome here if you have an s-line or some wicked cheering/dancing skills to make up for the lack of it.

And finally, The Populars. The royalties of the cafeteria/school/neighbourhood. The first rank on the all-powerful, all-deciding popularity ladder. Only kids like Kris and his gang are allowed within five feet from this table. It consists of people who are extremely talented, like Lee Taemin, extremely pretty, like Jessica Jung, or just plain popular, like Kris Wu. Kibum is honoured to be part of the Populars, but he makes it essential that he doesn't show it. To his gang, he's just a good-looking dancer—apparently his talent was good enough to get him a seat at the Populars' table, even though Taemin is the resident dance machine. Had it not been for his talent, he would sink to the level of the "Loners", or maybe even the "Gigglers"—only he doesn't know what is going on in the k-pop world any more than his grandmother does.

A voice calls out to him and Kibum snaps out of his thoughts and back into reality. Kris is staring at him expectantly, and Kibum apologetically raises his eyebrows, indicating for him to repeat whatever it was he had said.

"I asked if you did the trig homework," Kris repeats his question, obviously getting annoyed with having to say the same thing twice.

"Yeah, but why copy _my_ homework?" asks Kibum, reaching for his bag anyway. "Taemin's the maths whiz here."

"He's in at lunchtime, apparently Coach Jaewon's making him do a solo for the Seoul Music Contest coming up," Jessica answers for Kris, whose coolness obviously restricts him from answering questions but allows him to ask all the questions he wants. "I heard he's chosen you to do a solo too."

"I don't wanna talk about it," Kibum replies darkly, because he simply cannot talk about being partnered up with Jonghyun in front of these people. Instead he pulls out his notebook, and Jessica's eyes light up when she sees that the sparkly pink unicorn sticker she had placed on it is still there. Was she trying to say he was gay when she put it there, giggling as she did? He never had the courage to ask, only laughed along dumbly.

"I _hate_ trigonometry," mutters Krystal Jung, Jessica's sister who doesn't look much like the older girl appearance-wise, but is almost identical when it comes to personalities.

"The old man's bonkers," adds Jessica, lowering her gaze to inspect her ever-perfect nails. "I mean, seriously, he expects us to complete a whole spreadsheet ourselves. Get the _hell_ out."

"I think he's okay," says an unfamiliar, quiet voice, and Kibum turns his head abruptly to the chestnut-haired boy sitting next to Jessica. He hasn't seen this boy among them before and can't remember anyone getting into the Populars so fast, except Taemin, but he had exceptions.

"Oh, Jinki-bear, seriously," Jessica rolls her eyes at the boy's comment. "Anyone who gives more than five questions for a single night is out of their mind." Her sister nods her head in agreement and Kibum raises an eyebrow._ Jinki-bear_? Jessica isn't exactly the type that would use such warm words, earning her the rightful nickname of the 'Ice Princess'.

Jessica seems to have noticed his confusion from where she sits and smiles sweetly at him. "Oh, Key, I don't think you guys have met before. This is my boyfriend," She places her hand on Jinki's shoulder, and the boy looks up. He has angular eyes that narrow into falcate lines when he smiles, and his voice washes over him like warm milk when he speaks.

"Hi, I'm Jinki."

"Key," replies Kibum, because after all, that _is _his name now. The Populars have a thing for changing their names into the nicknames they prefer—Kris was born Wu Fan, G-Dragon was born Kwong Jiyong, Ren was originally Choi Minki and Jessica and Krystal's Korean names are long forgotten.

"Nice to meet you," Jinki says, chipper and smiling, and he gets up to bow the standard ninety-degree bow. Kibum raises his eyebrows when the boy does so and they practically disappear behind his brown bangs when Jinki randomly falls as he's pulling his chair backwards to sit on it.

Jessica rolls her eyes again and mutters, "You've gotta stop doing that in public, babe. It's not good for you _or_ your rep."

Kibum swears Jinki's cheeks flush a bright pink when he bows his head apologetically. "I'm sorry, noona. Uh, I'm going to get something, do you guys want anything?"

"I want a Magnum, hyung!" calls Krystal from her last-minute homework.

"Two," adds Kris, closing his trigonometry notebook and tossing Kibum's one back to him. Kibum catches it before it smacks him in the face and lets out an annoyed "_Yah_!"

"Make that three." Jessica goes back to studying her nails.

Jinki nods and sweeps his gaze over the rest of the table, where Kibum sits, pouting with his arms crossed. G-Dragon is sleeping, his head rested onto his arms.

"Do you want anything, Key?"

Kibum shakes his head. "Nah, I'm good. I had lunch and if I eat ten extra bites I'll gain ten extra pounds, and I'm sort of on a diet..."

"Oppa, it's only one ice cream. You can puke it out afterwards." A suggestion as stupid as that could have only come from clueless Krystal and Kibum scrunches up his face in disgust.

"_Sick_."

"Are you sure you don't want one?" Jinki asks again, turning to leave. Kibum nods and watches him go, and when he is sure Jinki is out of earshot, he leans in and whispers loudly, "Oh my _God_! He'd buy the whole cafeteria ice cream if we let him!"

"Well, duh. His dad's a hotshot lawyer and his mother works at the bank so they're filthy rich." Jessica's eyes flicker up and she smirks. "Why else would I date such a klutz?"

Kibum's eyes widen as the words sink in.

It makes sense. Kibum, and the rest of the Populars, know that a clumsy, lame student like Jinki would never make it into such an elite group unless there's something just as high as status that makes up for it, and in Jinki's case, it's his money. That's what they're after, Kibum thinks, and he fumes silently. It's wrong, unfair, deceitful, but Kibum knows his place and stays quiet.


End file.
